I'm sitting alone waiting for my date to hopefully come back from the bathroom. Not that I would blame her if she just up and left, the whole night was a disaster already anyway so why would she force herself to stay? Even if I'm the State of Texas or not I'm not doing too good on the whole first date thing.
It started early when on the drive over my old truck got a flat out in the middle of nowhere, and it took me nearly an hour to fix it in the damn heat. Not only that my fucking phone died so I couldn't even call her or triple A.
Damn it I should have taken that as a sign from above but no. I kept pushing on, so I pick her up at the hotel…an hour late looking like a real mess. But lord knows I couldn't tell if she was just being nice or if it was pity but there she was waiting out in the lobby and she's somehow not mad at me. Though I will say Seychelles did look damn fine in that little blue cocktail dress with a simple little silver dolphin hanging off her neck.
Anyway so I drive her to the nicest, most romantic restaurant in the whole city in hope of savaging the night but of course the fuckers don't have my reservation anywhere and what's worse they have no room for us anyway. God why me?
So now I'm stuck in this little nearly empty honkytonk. Oh and one of the few other tables here are of course my Dad and England. I can tell they've been following us all night trying to be inconspicuous but are failing badly at it; well at least they look like their having a good time because I know I blew it with Seychelles. All I want is to slam my head on the table and order a really, really strong drink but that won't really solve anything…yet anyway.
I don't know why but she's actually coming back to the table, but I brace myself for the whole this was fun we should do this again sometime but it's really getting late…which really means never call me again in fact lose my number loser. But instead she sits down and smiles at me, "I like the music in here."
For the most part I just look at her somewhat surprised and I just say the first thing that comes to me, "Uh, yeah it's great…so um do you want ta dance with me?" I watch her cheeks go a light red and I could kick myself right now, what kind of crappy 80's movie line was that?
But again to my surprise and probably to my shadows watching from the nearby booth she nods sheepishly at me and if I wasn't paying attention I would have missed her soft answer, "I would love to."
The next song comes on and even though it's not the best first dance song, Hell I'll take it. So I stand and reach out my hand for hers with yet another crappy line of mine, "This is one of my favorite songs, and it's great for slow dancing." I swear I can hear my Dad face palm behind me but what else can I say?
I swear this girl is full of surprises when she not only takes my hand but lets me lead her out onto the dance floor. I'm careful of the watchful eyes to where exactly I place my hands, so I just let them rest on her small hips while she wraps her arms around my neck practically on tip toes. Both of us just sway to the song for a while before she says anything else, "I'm having a great time Tex."
Her sweet genuine smile puts me at ease as I smile back at her, "That's great I am too but… you don't have ta call me Tex."
She moves a little closer to me and I can smell her light flora perfume mixed with the smell of ocean breeze in her long black hair, "So what should I call you?"
Normally I let my dates call me either Tex or Texas but she's way different than any of the other girls she's kind and caring and I want her to know it, so I quietly answer her, "Gabriel."
"Gabriel?" I feel a chill run down my spine when she repeats it in a whisper near my ear and again all I can do is smile as I nod. We stay like this for what feels like hours, and I'm praying we could stay like this until we shut her down but the song ends and the next a more upbeat one starts but we don't leave the dance floor let alone break our embrace.
I look deep in her shining eyes as they slowly start to close and I take this moment to bend down slightly and we share a light sweet kiss. I don't know if I'll catch hell the next morning or a slap on the back for kissing a country but right now I don't care. All I can think about how I pray this ain't just a one-time thing…God this was a great first date!
